Has anyone ever had a chicken survive ocular marek's?

[saltandpepper2]

I'm really sorry your'e going through this :/

 

[aldarita]

So sorry to hear the test came positive. I know it is a big blow for a chicken lover, from here on we just have to hope for the best. How is your SLW doing?
I have a patient in my "hospital" right now (not related to Marek's) she had an impacted crop and had to be flushed out at the vet's. It is a touch and go situation so I am crossing my fingers for her to recover. This is like a roller coaster, some days she seems to be improving and the next day she falls back.
I wish you the best of luck !!!!

 

[LolaChick]

just wanted to let you know i am going through the same thing as you right now. confirmed marek's today in a pullet i lost last week. watching the remainder of my flock (her now 15 week old sister, plus my four older preexisting hens) to see what happens. it's awful. thinking all the same thoughts as you. guilt, fear, dread, you name it. i have found the marek's thread soooo helpful.... it's the one that says something like "marek's, not an emergency." sorry i don't have the link at hand but it's somewhere here if you search it. good luck to you.

 

[saltandpepper2]

Just I would give you guys some hope: once a bird hits 25 weeks, the chance of them dying from mareks lowers drastically. By 30 weeks, it most likely won't happen. The most common death stages is 8-10 weeks, then again at around 15-20 weeks. You get past these ages, and you should be goo without worrying that mareks will directly kill your birds. Now, I say directly because mareks does weaken the immune system making them more susceptible to other diseases. Hoping everything goes alright for the rest of your flocks!

 

[chickamy]

Does this mean that if one chick dies of Mereks (even though they were all vaccinated) the others are carriers? That doesn't make sense to me.

 

[MaggieP]

So sorry to hear the test came positive. I know it is a big blow for a chicken lover, from here on we just have to hope for the best. How is your SLW doing?
I have a patient in my "hospital" right now (not related to Marek's) she had an impacted crop and had to be flushed out at the vet's. It is a touch and go situation so I am crossing my fingers for her to recover. This is like a roller coaster, some days she seems to be improving and the next day she falls back.
I wish you the best of luck !!!!  

Oh no, that's terrible about your chicken! One time I had my husband empty the crop of one of my chickens because it was the size of a base ball. I felt awful seeing my chicken go through it but the next day she was fine. Maybe she would have been fine if we had left her, I just didn't know. Did you know what may have caused it to get impacted? Gosh if it's not one thing it's another! How is she today?

 

[MaggieP]

just wanted to let you know i am going through the same thing as you right now. confirmed marek's today in a pullet i lost last week. watching the remainder of my flock (her now 15 week old sister, plus my four older preexisting hens) to see what happens. it's awful. thinking all the same thoughts as you. guilt, fear, dread, you name it. i have found the marek's thread soooo helpful.... it's the one that says something like "marek's, not an emergency." sorry i don't have the link at hand but it's somewhere here if you search it. good luck to you. 

Sorry about your pullet. I will look for that thread, I don't think I've seen it (even though I made myself read anything and everything about mareks when I realized
that's where I was headed). Unfortunatly the one thing I didn't read was how to cure it I have 4 pullets left and I think my Barred Rock is showing signs. I just can't believe I keep running into these horrible scenarios with my chickens! I started with 4 last march and ended up with 1. Raised 6 more from chicks so my remaining girl wasn't alone. Lost one of the pullets 2 months ago and wasn't satisfied with thinking each case was isolated, considering I had a vet involved and was doing everything right, and was still losing them! I found a place 2 hours away that would do a necropsy so I drove her. It took two months for the results to get back to me and in the mean time, while waiting on the results, I found my SLW from my original 4 (9mo at the time) had a small pupil. And that's when I knew before "I knew". Now I feel I'm just going to keep losing them and it's HORRIBLE. I am waaay into my animals. I catch myself thinking all day about how big are the tumors, how much pain are any of them in, how fast is the tumor in my SLW's eye going to grow, will I go out there one day and just find her laying there? I take my chicken care to the extreme and my least favorite thing in the world is when animals are suffering. Now I feel like I've got a front row seat to the horror.

 

[MaggieP]

Does this mean that if one chick dies of Mereks (even though they were all vaccinated) the others are carriers?  That doesn't make sense to me.

I'm quoting this from The GreatBig Giant Marek's FAQ (by Nambroth) thread found on this website.

"The most important thing to know about chicken Marek's vaccines is that they are not a cure, they are not an immunity, and they are non-sterilizing. In short, this means that giving a chicken a vaccination gives the chicken's immune system exposure to a related virus (usually HVT MDV-3, HVT stands for HerpesVirus of Turkeys). This related virus cannot cause symptoms in a chicken, but gives the immune system something to target and build a resistance. The hope here is that if the chicken is ever exposed to Marek's virus later in life, that the immune system will react appropriately to fight off progression of the virus into lymphomas, and the chicken will not develop the symptoms.
Effective vaccination in chickens will not ever prevent the chicken from becoming infected with Marek's virus. In fact, it can be assumed that any chicken exposed to the virus will become infected. Instead of preventing infection, the vaccine builds resistance within the immune system which in turn will prevent lymphoid tumors from forming. As these tumors (neoplasms) are the most fatal part of the disease, effective vaccination can save the chicken's life."

I found a lot of information about Marek's there.
-Maggie

 

[MaggieP]

Just I would give you guys some hope: once a bird hits 25 weeks, the chance of them dying from mareks lowers drastically. By 30 weeks, it most likely won't happen. The most common death stages is 8-10 weeks, then again at around 15-20 weeks. You get past these ages, and you should be goo without worrying that mareks will directly kill your birds. Now, I say directly because mareks does weaken the immune system making them more susceptible to other diseases. Hoping everything goes alright for the rest of your flocks!

My SLW showed the ocular form at 36 wks. I wonder if the tumor will continue to grow and if she's walking around with a migraine all the time.

 

[saltandpepper2]

My SLW showed the ocular form at 36 wks. I wonder if the tumor will continue to grow and if she's walking around with a migraine all the time.

Wow! That's extremely rare. I've had mareks in my flock for almost three years, and the latest mortality has been 20 weeks! I'm very sorry that your flock is going through this, and I hope that your bird doesn't get worse.